A Method for Identifying Source Regions of Asian Dust Usingthe Long-range Transport Model and Satellite Images

摘要

A method for identifying the released region and timeof Asian dust using the long-range inverse transport model thattraces the wind field in the backward direction from positionswhere Asian dust was observed is described. Initial conditionsfor the inverse transport simulation were obtained from the timevariation of the density distribution of the suspended particulatematter (SPM) in the air measured at various places in Japan.Based on a concentration of trajectories of the air masscomputed by the inverse transport model, the source region ofAsian dust clouds observed at meteorological stations in Japanon March 17 to 18, 2002 was estimated. As a result, it wasfound that dust particles were released at about 6h on March 15in the neighborhood of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.